NIGERIA UNDER BRITISH RULE 467 of the Protectorate, well aware that no government could be carried on without a revenue, looked for an earlydeclaration on a subject which was to them of supreme importance.

Northern Nigeria, it has been said, has no seaboard. Internal fiscal frontiers were abolished when its territories were transferred to the Crown. The fruitful source of customs is, therefore, under present arrangements, cut off from its fiscal possibilities. It must look to direct taxation for its resources. Direct taxation is also that to which the natives have been accustomed. The broad system on which the country was taxed under native administration has been already alluded to, and it has been seen that the burden was heavy. Under it the revenue of the emirs and the principal fief-holders from the quite legitimate sources of land, cattle, duties on crops, trades, &c., should have been considerable. But in the decadence of Fulani rule, the disorders which prevailed, the chronic rebellion of tributary states, and the abuses of tax - gatherers, prevented these revenues from flowing as they should have done to the public treasury. While the dynasties were detested for their arbitrary exactions, the emirs were generally poor.

The advent of the British and the overthrow of Fulani rule were at first hailed by the peasantry as an excuse to repudiate all obligations to pay taxes, and even in the well-organised province of Kano the revenue could not be collected. It was evident that, if the policy of ruling through the Fulani was to be maintained, the first duty of the British Administration was to provide for the peaceable collection of the taxes ; and since the conquered emirs had been deprived of the power to raise troops or police in their territories, it was necessary that British force should even be applied in case of need to compel payment.

The recognition of this obligation had the good effect of enlisting the sympathy and goodwill of the ruling classes, and of carrying to their minds some conviction of the truth